December 2008 MMA News Archive - Page 6

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UFC middleweight title contender Nathan Marquardt is now set to return to action at UFC 95 on Saturday, February 21 at the O2 Arena in London, England.
FiveOuncesOfPain.com confirmed the news with a source close to Marquardt earlier this afternoon. An opponent is still in the process of being finalized.

Per Nightmare of Battle, three new fights were added today to the Sengoku No Ran 2009(or Sengoku: Rebellion 2009 in English if you like) event which is going to be held on January 4th, 2009 in the famous Saitama Super Arena in Japan. Of the three announced fights from today only one will be on the main card of the event and that is a fight between up start Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal versus Yukiya Naito.
The other two fights announced today were a lightweight fight between Maximo Blanco and Seigo Inoue and a light heavyweight fight between Hidetada Irie and Minoru Kato. Both fights are going to be held on the under card portion of the event. Blanco will be making his Sengoku debut against Inoue, who fought almost a week ago, along with Naito, at DEEP 39. Both fighters were victorious in their last fights.
Card so far:
SENGOKU Lightweight Championship
* Takanori Gomi vs. Satoru Kitaoka
SENGOKU Middleweight Championship
* Kazuo Misaki vs. Jorge Santiago
* Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Sanae Kikuta
* King Mo vs. Yukiya Naito
* Hidetada Irie vs. Minoru Kato
* Antonio Silva vs. Yoshihiro "KISS" Nakao
* Dave Herman vs. Choi Mu Bae
* Eiji Mitsuoka vs. Sergey Golyaev
* Maximo Blanco vs. Seigo Inoue

Its a bit late but I couldnt find it posted....
"The Ultimate Fighter 6" runner-up Tommy Speer may be choosing a life on the farm over one inside a cage.
Speer, after a majority decision loss on Saturday, told the Virginian-Pilot that he’s done fighting.

“Beating Nogueira would be so significant to me, because of who he is. He’s a legend in our sport. Whether he wins or loses his next fight, he’s the Minotauro. Brock hasn’t earned that yet. Brock’s not a legend in our sport. He’s not even an icon in our sport yet. He’s an entertainer who is famous and who’s had a slight amount of success in our sport with two wins. Nogueira, I don’t have to say anything else about him. Just say his name and you get a reaction, you see the respect. Anyone who knows even a little bit about this sport knows what he’s about.”

(Note: A list of MMA's most fascinating people wouldn't be complete without the addition of UFC light heavyweight Matt Hamill. In the first of a four-part series leading up to a UFC 92 bout with Reese Andy, MMAjunkie.com's Jon Lane delves into the world of Hamill, the UFC's first-ever deaf fighter. While the surface has been scratched, Lane takes us deep into Hamill's world and explains how it all comes together – in MMA and in life. MMAjunkie.com is pleased to present the first installment of our new series, "Matt Hamill: Raw.")

News that Dutch striker Gilbert Yvel was scheduled to face Josh Barnett at Affliction’s upcoming “Day of Reckoning” raised many eyebrows.
Few fighters in the game are as controversial as Yvel. Despite one of the most exciting and explosive skill sets in the heavyweight division, his career has been marred by several in-ring incidents that made him unemployable to most big promotions. Among the most notorious: biting a referee in a 1998 bout in Russia, eye gouging Don Frye at PRIDE 16, and most alarmingly, knocking out a referee in 2004 at a show in Finland.
In February of 2007, the Nevada State Athletic Commission denied Yvel a license to fight for his past misbehaviors.
To ensure he will licensed for “Reckoning,” Yvel and his representatives will meet with Assistant Executive Officer Bill Douglas in early January for a closed-door session.

From an infant escaping war-torn Vietnam shortly before the fall of its capital, Saigon, to San Shou star to MMA champion, Cung Le has seen his share of good times and bad.
Still, throughout it all, he has persisted to become the best at what he does, leading him to find success both in and out of the arena and become one of combat sports' most popular athletes.
Recently Le had a chance to look back over his year and discuss the injury that has kept him sidelined much of the year, while also pursuing a blossoming film career.

UK middleweight contender, Michael “The Count” Bisping has warned talented Brazilian Demian Maia if their paths were to cross in the future, he wouldn’t allow him to pull guard on him like he has done with past opponents and that he’d knock him out first.

Top British welterweight Paul Taylor will not be fighting at UFC 95 in London, Fighters Only has learned.
According to his management, Taylor is taking longer than expected to recover from the broken ribs he sustained against Chris Lytle at UFC 89.
Taylor had been rumoured to be facing The Ultimate Fighter season seven graduate Matt ‘The Immortal’ Brown.
Aside from Taylor being British, the UFC was keen to have him because he is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser with three Fight of the Night awards to his name.

Despite a crammed month of combat-sports offerings from the Ultimate Fighting Championship, World Extreme Cagefighting and even partner Golden Boy Productions, Tom Atencio believes January's "Affliction: Day of Reckoning" event is poised for success.
In fact, Atencio, Affliction's Vice President, thinks the show could outdo its debut event "Banned," which took place in July and drew 14,832 spectators with more than 100,000 pay-per-view buys.

The fighter most excited by the recent alliance between Affliction Entertainment and Golden Boy Promotions is Vitor Belfort. Belfort made it clear that he wants to take up boxing in the very near future.
“I want to fight boxing - professional,” Belfort said, “I hope Golden Boy can make that happen.”
To this point, Belfort has not signed with Golden Boy or any other boxing promotion. He made it clear that this is the first official declaration of his intentions.
“I just made the first announcement today that I am interested,” Belfort said, “I am just going see who the person is that I need to negotiate with - now is the time with Golden Boy involved”

As the sport of mixed martial arts continues to grow all over the world, Bellator Fighting Championships may be the biggest expansion into the Latin market that has been made so far. Debuting on ESPN Deportes in 2009, Bellator made a huge move last month signing on No. 2 ranked lightweight Eddie Alvarez to fight in its inaugural tournament and fight for them beginning in April next year.

Frank Shamrock ‘Moving on to 2009’
Former Undefeated UFC Champion and Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Frank Shamrock talked with PDG about the Fall of EliteXC, the Rise of Strikeforce, fighting Tito Ortiz, his brother Ken, a rematch with Cung Le and More!

PDG: Really, so the fight is still scheduled for around April?
Shamrock: I have arena dates booked and a pay-per-view date all set up. Ken is just being Ken though and we really haven't finalized his commitment to the fight. I have worked way too hard to make this fight happen but man it has been an uphill battle all the way.
PDG: Overall, what are your lasting impressions of how the whole EliteXC-CBS Saturday Night program ended and the ultimate demise of the company?
Shamrock: Sadly, I believe that the ending was almost inevitable. The way they had their business model laid out, they were not equipped to handle any bad press. You had a bunch of guys that didn't know what they were doing making the decisions for the company. As far as Kimbo Slice getting knocked out, I thought it was great MMA. That is what the whole sport is about; two fighters get in there and go at it and the situation created a great opportunity for Seth Petruzelli. That moment was pure MMA and its unfortunate that it caused the demise of the company.

After his six-fight win streak was snapped with a unanimous-decision loss to Gray Maynard at UFC 90, Rich Clementi (32-13-1 MMA, 5-4 UFC) looks to return to the win column when he meets fellow lightweight Gleison Tibau (15-6 MMA, 3-3 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 17.
The event takes place Feb. 7 at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Fla.
Spike TV will broadcast a live two-hour main card, but the Clementi-Tibau fight takes place on the night's un-aired preliminary card.

Bosnia and Herzegovina-based UFC newcomer Denis Stojnic (5-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) will meet highly regarded UFC heavyweight prospect Cain Velasquez (4-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) in February at UFC Fight Night 17.
The event takes place Feb. 7 at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Fla.
The night's main card will air on Spike TV, though it's unknown if the Stojnic-Velasquez bout will be a part of the two-hour broadcast.

He will make his debut at UFC 95 in London, although his opponent has not been agreed upon.
“I think I can beat most of the guys there. They have five or six really good heavyweights. The other guys... not so good, I think,” Struve told us.
Struve (22-2) was picked up by the promotion after submitting UFC veteran Mario ‘Sukata’ Neto several weeks ago.
And in July, he stopped another UFC veteran – Colin Robinson – with a triangle after a one-sided first round.